Stubborn Child’s Pose

It is a very common experience in a vinyasa yoga class to be told that Child’s Pose (Balasana) is a resting pose, and to utilize it whenever we need a break or a rest.

The posture fulfills that purpose nicely as it is a tri-doshic posture and therefore energetically neutral and balanced.

However, in my own experience, Child’s Pose is an excellent place to build strength and energy in the hands and arms, as well as prep the shoulders, hips, and core for postures like Four-Limbed Staff Pose (Chathur-Anga Dandasana) and Downward-Facing Dog Pose (Adho-Mukha Svanasana).

All of those benefits of the posture, of course, largely vanish if the posture is treated as a resting posture.

It’s not so much a matter of a resting posture being “wrong” but rather a matter of being willing to ask: what if I treat this as something other than a resting posture?

A dear teacher I’ve known would often remind us to “activate the posture” and this is precisely the premise I am interested in here. To activate the body, dynamically and definitively, while in Child’s Pose creates a much different experience than we get when we are using the posture as a place to rest.

If the Mind is uncomfortable with the idea of Child’s Pose being anything other than your “homebase” when you need to rest during a vigorous practice, then give yourself the chance to explore a “Stubborn Child’s Pose” once in a while so you can take full advantage of what the posture has to offer besides being just a place to rest.